Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Tigers Routed By Rangers

The Tigers split the series with the Rangers after losing 11-3 tonight. They have now failed to win any of their last 8 series'. For the 4th straight time, they won the first game of a series only to lose the rest of the series. This was only a 2 game series but the pattern was the same.

As usual, the Tigers did not hit tonight but this time the pitching was bad too. Justin Verlander was tagged for 6 runs on 10 hits and failed to make it through the 5th inning. mike Maroth and Jason Grilli were also hit hard. The only positive was Andrew Miller's scoreless 7th inning. Gary Matthews Jr. did the most damage as he hit for the cycle and only neded 6 innings to do it. It was the first cycle for an opposition in Comerica Park history.

The Tigers continued their feeble offensive attack getting 7 hits including just one extra base hit. Surprisingly, the extra base hit was a two run double by Sean Casey. It was Casey's first RBI and only his 4th hit of the month.

After the game, I heard an ESPN analyst saying that the Tigers were not scoring runs because they strike out too much and don't manufacture runs. This is why I rarely watch ESPN anymore. They had been striking out and not manufacturing runs when they went 76-36 too. They are not scoring runs now because their entire offense is a mess from top to bottom. They are not hitting for average. They are not drawing walks. They are not hitting for power. Their stats for the last 34 games are .246/.293/.391 and their only consistent hitter has been Carlos Guillen. Those are awful numbers. This is not something which is going to remedied by bunting and hitting grounders to the right-side. They need to get 3 or 4 guys hitting a lot better immediately.

In other action, the Twins lost to the Athletics 1-0. Francisco Liriano started the game but re-injured his left elbow. He is out for the season and possibly a lot longer than that. I had a feeling they were rushing him back too quick. The White Sox blanked the Angels 9-0 behind a one hitter by Freddie Garcia who was perfect for 7 2/3 innings. The Tigers are now 1 1/2 up on the Twins and 3 up on the White Sox. It's starting to get frustrating but I still believe they are not this bad and will snap out of their slump. The Orioles are up next for three games. Their cushion is pretty much gone and they can't afford to lose another series to a below .500 team.